Frogging in FRIM

27th June 2009

Together with a few friends, we headed to FRIM, Kepong for some after-dark frogging with Hurnain.
From the Nature Education Centre, we headed up a track into the darkness of the forest waiting for sounds of the little amphibians, but barely a peep or a croak to give us any hope.
Hurnain spotted a leaf-litter frog. Great!

The eyes were so strange, so red. This chap is more of a walker than a jumper. Notice how skinny the legs are.
We weren't really just looking for frogs. It's interesting to see anything and everything at night. To see the night creatures busy looking for food, and the day creatures taking some well earnt rest:

This dragonfly was just clinging onto the underside of a leaf and would have gone unnoticed had I not been looking up in the branches above for vipers.

This spider was happily sitting inside the coiled up leaf until I took this photo, he scrambled out of the leaf into the web, nothing to see, he ran straight back in again.
From the track through the forest, we hit a stream and spent some time paddling up and down the water to look for water/stream frogs. A good 'health indicator' for an environment is whether there are any frogs present. They're normally the first to disappear/die-off when contaminants affect the quality.
Crabs are also a relatively good indicator for fresh water systems, and we noticed this little chap just beneath the surface, measuring just 4cm across he soon scurried away for cover as our big clumsy feet were paddling along his stretch of stream.

This guy was sat on a leaf beside the stream. Notice he doesn't have webbed feet, so he's not a swimmer.

Hurnain had ventured off by himself for a few minutes and returned with this little one in his hands. See the suckers on the front feet? He's a tree frog.
Just before we returned to dry land, we noticed this swimming frog sat patiently in a pool, so that rounded up our frogging trip, the rest of the walk out back to the NEC was spent looking at insects, mostly spiders.
Thanks to Hurnain for a great interesting trip, we'll be venturing off into another forest sometime soon for a night walk.
The above images will remain only here on our site until I can identify the species. Once done, I'll add them to the fauna section, and if any are good enough to make it, the gallery.

3 Lifers in Penang

6th June 2009

It was mid-School holidays and we figured most traffic would be outside of KL, so we headed to Penang for the weekend.
Big Mistake.
The roads were jammed around Penang.
Our first stop was Sungai Dua Air Hitam Dalam, a tiny remaining patch of forest along the river. We were hopeful of seeing the Streak-breasted Woodpecker, as some of the group hadn't seen it before.
The first thing we saw was a pair of Mangrove Pitta's flying in to feed their chicks, with small crabs. They'd generally break off the legs before bringing it back to the nest to feed to the young. Moments later, the adult would re-appear with the faecal sack and fly off in search of more food.
We only stopped by to grab a quick shot while we were there from a safe distance, but then moved off to continue our birding, realising the importance of letting these near-threatened birds continue their feeding in privacy.
Sungai Dua Air Hitam Dalam ended up being a little disappointing. No Streak-breasted Woodpecker, but plenty of Abbott's Babblers, White-chested Babblers, and Black-naped Orioles all over the place.
This is our list for Sungai Dua (including a short stop by on Sunday):

1. Bittern, Cinnamon (Ixobrychus cinnamomeus) Photos: (male): (fem): (juv):
2. Eagle, Crested Serpent (Spilornis cheela) Photos: (male): (juv): Show Video
3. Malkoha, Green-billed (Phaenicophaeus tristis) Photos: (male):
4. Kingfisher, Collared (Todiramphus chloris) Photos: (male): Show Video
5. Barbet, Lineated (Megalaima lineata) Photos: (male):
6. Pitta, Mangrove (Pitta megarhyncha) Photos: (male): LIFER, photo added
7. Iora, Common (Aegithina tiphia) Photos: (male):
8. Bulbul, Yellow-Vented (Pycnonotus goiavier) Photos: (male):
9. Drongo, Greater-Racket-Tailed (Dicrurus paradiseus) Photos: (male): (juv):
10. Oriole, Black-Naped (Oriolus chinensis) Photos: (male):
11. Babbler, White-Chested (Trichastoma rostratum)
12. Babbler, Abbotts (Malacocincla abbotti) Photos: (male):
13. Robin, Oriental Magpie (Copsychus saularis) Photos: (male): (juv):
14. Gerygone, Golden-Bellied (Gerygone sulphurea) Photos: (male):
15. Tailorbird, Ashy (Orthotomus ruficeps) Photos: (male):
16. Flycatcher, Mangrove Blue (Cyornis rufigastra) Photos: (male): (juv): Juvenile photo added
17. Fantail, Pied (Rhipidura javanica)

Additions to the gallery

Botanical Gardens, Penang

The second birding location was the Botanical Gardens in Penang. Well, we didn't make it into the gardens, as we'd managed to get our lifer just outside. We had headed over onto the island for 2 reasons. The first, is the Crested Myna, the second, an Oriental Bay Owl.
A Lifer for half of us, the Crested Myna turned out to be quite an interesting bird. At first glance, another Myna, but further studying revealed considerable differences to the Javan or Jungle Myna's.
So, after the Myna, we had to head off for some more food. Penang turned out to be more of a 'fooding' trip than 'birding'. After perhaps 3 food stops, the sun went down and the moon rose providing us ample light to walk WAAAAAAY up the hill nearby the entrance of the Botanical Gardens.

We were in search of Owls. While we struck out with the Oriental Bay Owl, we did manage to bag ourselves a Collared Scops-Owl, woohoo! Another lifer for half of us.
Quite shattered, having been on the road since 04:00 that morning, we headed back over to the mainland at about 11:30pm. My head touched down at 00:45.
Our birdlist for Botanical Gardens area:

1. Heron, Little (Butorides striatus) Photos: (male):
2. Pigeon, Green-Winged (Chalcophaps indica) Photos: (male):
3. Scops Owl, Collared (Otus bakkamoena) LIFER
4. Myna, Crested (Acridotheres cristatellus) Photos: (male): LIFER, photo added

HRH Prince Charles' Rainforest Project